Katie Gold
kg094517@ohio.edu
Growing up as the daughter of parents who worked at our local newspaper, I firsthand witnessed the decline and merging of local journalism. In the span of my lifetime, the Newark Advocate transformed from a thriving beacon of information in my community to a barely surviving paper published just a few times a week. The paper was bought and sold by different companies, just like many of the past independent newspapers in Ohio, and is now owned by Gannett, which includes the USA Today Network.
In 2019, Gannett and Gatehouse Media merged creating a news powerhouse of over 260 daily and 300 weekly newspapers across the US according to the New York Times. This merge had a drastic effect on Ohio newspapers. Papers that were once independent, were suddenly working together with papers across the state and the country to cover stories. Stories the Newark Advocate wrote were now being shared and published by the Cincinnati Enquirer, The Akron Beacon Journal, and the Mansfield News Journal.
While this merger has made news more interconnected across the state of Ohio and the US, it also puts significant pressure on journalists to report with responsibility and integrity knowing their stories may be published on a local, state, and even national level in the network.
Newspapers owned by Gannett Nationwide
Journalists in the wider Gannett company have a unique position to have their stories be heard in newspapers across the country. Because of this, they have the ability to put on display the core journalistic qualities to help build back trust
The Society of Professional Journalists has a comprehensive Code of Ethics which journalists nationwide follow. The main tenets of this code include seeking truth and reporting it, minimizing harm, acting independently, and being accountable and transparent.
In many newspapers, such as ones owned by Gannet, maintaining journalistic integrity and following these main ethics policies is an integral step in bringing back trust in news. According to the
Pew Research Center, 71% of Americans believe their local news outlets are doing a good job in reporting news accurately. The continued excellence in more localized news organizations such as Gannett is truly important in providing the public with news and information they know and trust.
In our interconnected sphere of journalism, it is important for journalists in these larger networks to not only be responsible for following their companies' wider ethics policy but to also emphasize the practice of being an independent reporter, and acting responsibly in a field that is essential to our society.
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